Don’t Miss Out

You’re all set!

Look out for our weekly updates soon.

Connect with us

Each week we send a customized newsletter to our parent and teen subscribers. Parents can customize their settings to receive recommendations and parent tips based on their kids’ ages. Teens receive a version just for them with the latest reviews and top picks for movies, video games, apps, music, books, and more.

Sign up now for the latest news, top picks for your kids, and helpful tips.

What parents need to know

The competition is generally friendly, but racers often taunt each other, saying things like "This is the part where you wish you were me."

Violence & scariness

Plenty of cartoonish vehicular combat. Cars spin out of control, smoke, and eventually explode.

Language

Not applicable

Consumerism

This game is based on the Speed Racer movie, which in turn was inspired by a television show of the same name.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this game is a direct offshoot of the Speed Racer movie. Seeing the film will make many children want to play the game and vice versa. Experiencing both will probably result in an overwhelming desire to buy lots of Speed Racer toys. Still, it's a good quality racing game with little in the way of worrisome content. Trixie's skirt will seem a little short for some parents' taste, and a fair bit of cartoonish violence takes place in the form of vehicles attacking one another with spins and jumps, but there is little else in the way of potentially offensive material.

User reviews

Parents say

Kids say

What's it about?

Not surprisingly, SPEED RACER: THE VIDEO GAME, which is based on the similarly named movie, is a racing game. It allows players to jump into the boots of the film's lead characters and zoom around the same sort of spectacular, gravity defying, sci-fi race tracks seen in the movie. Racers can also attack their competitors using Car-Fu, which is a sort of vehicular martial art that involves jumping onto and bumping into nearby cars to slow them down. As the single-player portion of the game progresses, additional races, tracks, and cars become unlocked. The game also offers a two-player split screen mode.

Is it any good?

QUALITY

Games based on movies have a reputation for being hastily thrown together, and typically occupy the middle or lower rungs of whichever genre into which they happen to fall. That's not the case with Speed Racer: The Video Game. While it could have done more in the way of narrative (which is to say there really isn't any sort of story at all), it's actually a solid little racing game that delivers a thrilling sense of speed -- the in-game speedometer measures velocities as high as 500 miles per hour -- and plenty of exciting, gravity defying tracks.

What's more, it provides excellent motion sensitive steering controls designed with the Wii remote's snap-on steering peripheral in mind (though it plays just as well without it). The Car-Fu attack moves employ the remote's motion sensitive functionality as well, requiring players to jerk the remote left or right to bump into other cars and make a pancake flipping motion to perform jumps. The attacks are generally pretty easy to pull off -- and it's a good thing, since players will need to master them in order to win harder races later in the game. The only real downside to the races is that computer-controlled opponents adjust performance based on the player, which means they slow down when you take a spill and speed up when you are racing well. It's nice to be given a chance when you fall behind, but it's aggravating when you're in the lead and unable to put more than a second or two between you and your nearest opponent, even when racing flawlessly.

Families can talk about...

Families can talk about games based on movies. Do they provide insight into a film's imaginary world? Do you come away feeling as though you know more about the movie's characters? Or are movie-based games simply a means of pretending that you are in a movie, reliving its most memorable scenes? Are these games generally as entertaining as the films upon which they are based? Do you ever enjoy games based on movies more than the movies themselves?

About our buy links

When you use our links to make a purchase, Common Sense Media earns a small affiliate fee from Amazon or iTunes. As a nonprofit organization, these funds help us continue providing independent, ad-free services for educators, families, and kids while the price you pay remains the same. Thank you for your support.Read more

What parents and kids say

Good game that was underated

Speed racer is a great racing game for those who wants a new experience of racing. It is full of futuristic tracks, vivid environment , colorful eye candy, and idolize fuel cell cars Its easy to control for ps2 and more epic in replay.

Get top media picks for your kid's age

Each week we send a customized newsletter to our parent and teen subscribers. Parents can customize their settings to receive recommendations and parent tips based on their kids’ ages. Teens receive a version just for them with the latest reviews and top picks for movies, video games, apps, music, books, and more.

Our Policies

Download our free app

Common Sense is the nation’s leading independent non-profit organization dedicated to empowering kids to thrive in a world of media and technology. Families, educators, and policymakers turn to
Common Sense for unbiased information and trusted advice to help them learn how to harness the positive power of media and technology for all kids.

The Common Sense and Common Sense Media names, associated trademarks, and logos, including the Decider Slider and Age Ratings Bugs,
are trademarks of Common Sense Media, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization (FEIN 41-2024986).